Tourisme Montréal Blog » activities montrealhttp://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 19:13:05 +0000en-UShourly1Things to Do in Montreal: April 12-18http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/things-to-do-in-montreal-april-12-18/
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/things-to-do-in-montreal-april-12-18/#commentsThu, 11 Apr 2013 14:11:18 +0000Robyn Faddenhttp://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/?p=9397With winter on the outs, Montreal is picking up the pace (though we didn’t slow down too much) with spring-themed restaurant menus, a huge fashion sale, sporting events, comedy stylings, theatre, dance, interactive art and an extreme number of live music shows… (food & fun) Find a kind of satisfaction in the slow advent of spring with fabulous, thoughtfully created food, beginning with a seasonal menu at the FoodLab at the SAT until April 12, and followed up on April 15 with a “Schnitzel & Riesling” food party, full of Germanic flavour and complemented afterwards by an electronic music soiree. And, of course, the famous maple syrup of Quebec is in abundant supply during sugaring-off season, with inspired menus at restaurants around the city, and a full-on sugar shack down at the Old Port at La Cabane. Or simply sink your teeth into one of the best steaks in Montreal. (sports & laughs) Basketball, comedy and entertainment fuel the Harlem Globetrotters, putting on a show for the whole family at the Bell Centre on April 12 – and of course, the Bell Centre sees hockey season head into spring as the Canadiens play the Flyers on April 15 and face off against... / Read More →

]]>With winter on the outs, Montreal is picking up the pace (though we didn’t slow down too much) with spring-themed restaurant menus, a huge fashion sale, sporting events, comedy stylings, theatre, dance, interactive art and an extreme number of live music shows…

(food & fun) Find a kind of satisfaction in the slow advent of spring with fabulous, thoughtfully created food, beginning with a seasonal menu at the FoodLab at the SAT until April 12, and followed up on April 15 with a “Schnitzel & Riesling” food party, full of Germanic flavour and complemented afterwards by an electronic music soiree. And, of course, the famous maple syrup of Quebec is in abundant supply during sugaring-off season, with inspired menus at restaurants around the city, and a full-on sugar shack down at the Old Port at La Cabane. Or simply sink your teeth into one of the best steaks in Montreal.

(sports & laughs) Basketball, comedy and entertainment fuel the Harlem Globetrotters, putting on a show for the whole family at the Bell Centre on April 12 – and of course, the Bell Centre sees hockey season head into spring as the Canadiens play the Flyers on April 15 and face off against the Lightning on April 18. More comedy, of the non-sports-related variety, comes to Club Soda on April 17 at An Evening of Comedy for the Benefit of On Our Own, an organization that provides services and housing to vulnerable families, with Montreal funny people Joey Elias, Eman, Dan Bingham, Sebastien Bourgault and Jess Salomon.

(theatre & dance) Contemporary ballet meets the music of Elton John and plenty of sequins and bright lights and colours in Love Lies Bleeding, at Place des Arts, to April 14. Sinha Danse Company presents Sunya, a new work for four dancers and three musicians, inspired by Persian music, contemporary dance, and bringing different cultures together, part of the Danse Danse spring season, April 17-27 at Cinquième Salle. Danish dance-theatre troupe Granhøj Dans crafts dramatic theatre, comedic moments and sings plenty of Leonard Cohen’s songs in Dance Me to the End On/Off Love, to April 14 at Centaur Theatre, or entertain the kids with The Trial of Goldilocks, an updated fairy tale at Centaur Theatre on Saturday, April 13. And check out the experimental theatre of love u lovecraft [lab], inspired by the world of H.P. Lovecraft, April 16-20 at Bain St-Michel.

(fashion finds) Find out what many Montreal fashionistas already know at this year’s Braderie de Mode Quebecoise, a huge 50-80% off sale of samples and inventory surplus from local designers, April 11-14 at Marché Bonsecours in the Old Port – find unique clothing and accessories, talk to designers, and perhaps even meet some of the designers and people behind Montreal Fashion Week.

(art worlds) As part of the MMFA exhibition Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon, see Peru on the big screen in documentary films from the TV5 series Amérikologie, playing on April 13 – free at the Maxwell Cummings Auditorium, and on April 17, attend an Afro-Peruvian percussion workshop with Kullak Viger Ross. Enter the labyrinthine fact-meets-fiction world of Laurent Grasso’s multi-room Uraniborg exhibition at the MACM, showing along with work by photographer Lynne Cohen and live performance conjured up by artist Tino Sehgal. Over at the Society for Art and Technology, see P3rception, surround-sound-and-image films shown in the Satosphere dome, to April 29. Hear more about the Thomas Demand exhibition at DHC/ART in a round-table discussion on April 17. And the Montreal Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven’s Third Concerto, with pianist Till Fellner and Kent Nagano conduction on April 16-17.

(live music) Start the weekend with the psych-rock of The Black Angels at Le National on Friday night. Saturday, April 13 is a big night: choose from a massive show with Canadian rock-punk Billy Talent, Sum 41, Hollerado and Indian Handcrafts at the Bell Centre, the East-Coast folk-rock of Great Big Sea at Metropolis, Welsh alt-rock band The Joy Formidable plays Theatre Corona, the myriad musical styles of Montreal hip-hop collective Nomadic Massive at Club Soda, or great MTL indie-rock of The Besnard Lakes at Cabaret Du Mile End. On Sunday, listen to the live electro-pop of Rhye at Cabaret Mile End. Funnily enough, Monday night is also a big one, with Australian “metalcore” band Parkway Drive at Metropolis, and for those of us who like it loud, it’s a tough choice between Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple at Sala Rossa vs. Pissed Jeans at Il Motore. On April 16, tune in to Stereo Total at Il Motore. And on April 18, get your folkoric-pagan-metal on at Paganfest America 2013 with Finland’s Ensiferum, The Faroe Islands’ Tyr and more beer-soaked mayhem at Metropolis on April 18. Meanwhile, Montreal’s Bran Van 3000 and Paul Cargnello headline a fundraiser for community organization Le Sac à Dos at Club Soda.

]]>http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/things-to-do-in-montreal-april-12-18/feed/0Spring into the MACMhttp://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/spring-into-the-macm/
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/spring-into-the-macm/#commentsTue, 26 Mar 2013 20:23:25 +0000http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/?p=9194The power to make art is yours these days at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MACM), right in the heart of the city’s bustling Quartier des Spectacles… The MACM is always an accessible museum, but these days it’s even more interactive than usual thanks to two works by British-born, Berlin-based artist Tinho Segal. Creating a cross between theatre and visual art that somehow sidesteps art performance, Seghal builds entire sets in museums and hires “actors” to animate them in carefully choreographed situations. Right now there are two of his pieces at the MACM: his iconic Kiss, from 2002, which involves a couple reinterpreting famous kisses drawn from the history of art in a tightly choreographed 8-minute loop; and This Situation, from 2007, a conversation piece that has the “agents” discuss philosophical issues between themselves and with the visitor, if you so choose. Passersby can influence the whole direction the performance takes awhile they are in the room. Now that’s power! Right next door in the video room don’t miss 4 000 Disparos by Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade, for which he filmed male faces in Super 8 film as he travelled throughout Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia,... / Read More →

]]>The power to make art is yours these days at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MACM), right in the heart of the city’s bustling Quartier des Spectacles…

The MACM is always an accessible museum, but these days it’s even more interactive than usual thanks to two works by British-born, Berlin-based artist Tinho Segal. Creating a cross between theatre and visual art that somehow sidesteps art performance, Seghal builds entire sets in museums and hires “actors” to animate them in carefully choreographed situations.

Right now there are two of his pieces at the MACM: his iconic Kiss, from 2002, which involves a couple reinterpreting famous kisses drawn from the history of art in a tightly choreographed 8-minute loop; and This Situation, from 2007, a conversation piece that has the “agents” discuss philosophical issues between themselves and with the visitor, if you so choose. Passersby can influence the whole direction the performance takes awhile they are in the room. Now that’s power!

Right next door in the video room don’t miss 4 000 Disparos by Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade, for which he filmed male faces in Super 8 film as he travelled throughout Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, in a journey of territorial recognition of a Latin America he belongs to without feeling part of. French artist Laurent Grasso and Montreal artist Lynne Cohen round out the current exhibitions: With his trickster’s take on temporality and the making of history, Grasso’s show, titled, Uraniborg, presents neon signs, objects, videos and more that lead to the creation of what the artist calls a “false historical memory.”

Cohen, on the other hand, presents 40 of her interior landscapes – since the 1970s the artist has been capturing, unpopulated, often odd spaces constructed by humans, used by humans, but devoid of humans. The images are filled with the tension created by that emptiness and the occasional inexplicable aspects of the photographs. Photo: courtesy of Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto.

On April 5, make sure you catch the Friday Nocturne, the museum’s popular series from 5 to 9 pm every first Friday of the month, which this time features saxophonist Colin Stetson. Famous as a member of Bell Orchestre and a collaborator of Arcade Fire, Lou Reed and Feist, Stetson explores the limit of his instrument in his solo work, creating beautiful soundscapes that will transport you to wholly ethereal planes.

In May this bunch of exhibitions will make way for two new guys: the first solo exhibition in Canada of Brooklyn-based artist Eve Sussman and her collaborative team Rufus Corporation, for one. Generated by algorithm but influenced by the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Jean-Luc Godard and Wim Wenders, Sussman’s filmic pieces offer a futuristic look at space and time, utopia and dystopia, fractured narration and torn landscapes from Russia and Central Asia. In the next room there’ll be Montreal artist Michel de Broin, whose playful multidisciplinary practice extends from photography to video to sculpture, and explores the notions of resistance, misappropriation and recycling with a cynical sense of humour.

]]>http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/spring-into-the-macm/feed/2CLIMB HIGH AT MONTREAL’S ALLEZ UPhttp://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/climb-high-at-montreals-allez-up/
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/climb-high-at-montreals-allez-up/#commentsWed, 06 Mar 2013 22:33:12 +0000Robyn Faddenhttp://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/?p=8968Montreal isn’t short on outdoor activities and sports for every season, especially the family friendly variety, like sledding and swimming, but for anyone of any age looking for something new and challenging, Montreal has the answer indoors: rock climbing… Last autumn, Montreal became home to one of the biggest and most ambitious rock climbing gyms in the country: Allez Up. But Allez Up had been around for many years before, just down the street from its shiny new current location near the Lachine Canal in the neighbourhood of Pointe St-Charles. With the new facility came more – and higher – climbing walls, more bouldering areas, more space for groups learning to climb, and a soon-to-be-reality dream of turning two old silos into a high-climbing experience like none other. The new space also peaked the interest of people looking for a new way to stay active (and maybe face a few fears and get an adrenaline rush along the way – believe me, I’m proof). On any given day at Allez Up, seasoned climbers scale the walls alongside newbies and school groups, creating an atmosphere unlike that of a typical gym – here people seem to naturally challenge themselves and learn... / Read More →

]]>Montreal isn’t short on outdoor activities and sports for every season, especially the family friendly variety, like sledding and swimming, but for anyone of any age looking for something new and challenging, Montreal has the answer indoors: rock climbing…

Last autumn, Montreal became home to one of the biggest and most ambitious rock climbing gyms in the country: Allez Up. But Allez Up had been around for many years before, just down the street from its shiny new current location near the Lachine Canal in the neighbourhood of Pointe St-Charles.

With the new facility came more – and higher – climbing walls, more bouldering areas, more space for groups learning to climb, and a soon-to-be-reality dream of turning two old silos into a high-climbing experience like none other. The new space also peaked the interest of people looking for a new way to stay active (and maybe face a few fears and get an adrenaline rush along the way – believe me, I’m proof).

On any given day at Allez Up, seasoned climbers scale the walls alongside newbies and school groups, creating an atmosphere unlike that of a typical gym – here people seem to naturally challenge themselves and learn from each other, getting stronger and more adept in the process. For those who haven’t tried climbing before, Allez Up offers excellent courses for first-time climbers and for younger climbers too, with equipment (harness, shoes, belay device) included, covering essentials such as knot-tying, harness use and belaying (safety first and always!), basic techniques and getting comfortable with climbing high. Always remember: falling is fun.

While rope climbing requires a partner, a necessity that both provides motivation and keeps the sport social, there’s the option to simply stay off the ropes and stick with bouldering, a sport that keeps climbers lower to the ground (with huge mats to land on, of course) but is just as challenging as climbing a wall. Courses for improving technique on the wall and learning how to lead climb take climbers to the next level, as do personal training sessions. With new routes going up regularly, from beginner to seriously advanced, Allez Up keeps the mind and body challenged while still having a ton of fun.